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New Togo Leader Promises Election
Togo's new military-installed leader promised Friday to hold presidential elections within two months, bowing to intense pressure at home and abroad to end his summary succession to power following the death of his dictator father. "In the superior interests of the nation and of the country's constitution, I promise to hold elections within 60 days, without delay," President Faure Gnassingbe said on state TV. Togo's army had announced Gnassingbe's appointment to power on Feb. 5, hours after the sudden death of his father, President Gnassingbe Eyadema, from a heart attack. Eyadema, who held power for 38 years, had been the world's longest-ruling leader after Cuba's Fidel Castro, using troops and repressive rule to resist the wave of democracy that rolled across the rest of sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s.Posted by: Fred 2005-02-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=56847 |